The One And Only takes Mannheim Grand Prix

Belgian director GeoffreyEnthoven's The Only One (Vidange Perdue),a touching story of a second spring in the winter of old age, won the GrandPrix at this year's Mannheim-Heidelberg International Film Festival.

The international jury,which included Chinese filmmaker Lou Ye and Macedonian actress-producer LabinaMitevska, awarded the Rainer Werner Fassbinder Prize to Norwegian Erik RichterStrand's Sons (Sonner) and gave two specialprizes to Switzerland's Lionel Baier for Stealth(Comme Des Voleurs) and Iceland's Arni Olafur Asgeirsson for Thicker Than Water (Blodboend).

In addition, specialmentions were made by the jury of the cinematographer Florent Henry for hiswork on Times And Winds (Bes Vakit),the Danish actor Jesper Aholt for his performance as the lead in The Art Of Crying (Kunsten At Graede I Kor),and of the US director James Longley for his documentary Iraq In Fragments.

Director Peter Schonau Fogreceived the audience award and a recommendation from a jury of three localexhibitors for his feature debut The ArtOf Crying, while the FIPRESCI prize was awarded to Franck Guerin's debut A Summer Day (Un Jour D'Ete).

At the parallel MannheimMeetings co-production gathering - now in its tenth year - 63 projects from 39countries were pitched in over 1,000 one-to-onemeetings to potential co-producers, with the first deals being announced by theend of the festival.

Germany's FilmkombinatNordost, who is now in final negotiations with a German theatrical distributorfor the release of the festival's opening film Schroeders Wunderbare Welt, has boarded Austrian director LeopoldLummerstorfer's $2.7m (Euros 2.1m) black drama While Stocks Last (Solange Der Vorrat Reicht) which plans to shootnext summer and already has backing in place from the Austrian Film Institute,CineStyria, the Government of Lower Austria, and the City of Vienna.

Moreover, the French-Turkishdirectorial duo Cagla Zencirci and Guillaume Giovanetti have attracted Hungary's Inforg Studio to put up 20% of the budget fortheir road movie You Are My Heart, You Are My Soul, whichwill be shot at locations in Pakistan next year.

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